1.2 billion people – 1 Gold Medal – and we rejoice like we have topped the Olympic Medal Chart !

Since the news of Abhinav Bindra winning a Gold Medal at Beijing Olympics has arrived, every news media – from TV to news papers to blogs have been in utter jubilation .

Taking nothing away from Abhinav Bindra, he has achieved something that no other Indian can boast of – an individual Gold Medal at Olympics – but as a nation of 1.2 billion people should be so very happy for winning 1 Gold Medal ?

In last Olympics when we won a Silver, everyone concluded that it was a successful Olympic campaign ! give me a break. Are we satisfied with so little?

Just to put things in perspective – Countries with a fraction of a size of India and much poorer (Kenya, Latvia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia etc. etc..) manage to win many medals in every outing of Olympics and we are happy winning one medal – Infact, it is a reason for country’s jubilation !

And the worst part is we are not improving. I had thought, with India’s growth in recent times, sports would see some kind of resurrection, but its not to be. We could not even qualify for our own national sports – Hockey – this time (first time in 80 years).

And who is to be blamed for all this ? Our corrupt Administrators and cricket ! yes, cricket.

I will never believe that India cannot produce World class sportspersons. It is our system and administrators who want to fill their pockets putting national pride at stake. And in this cricket crazy nation, people feel degraded associating themselves to other sports. One would feel that with so much money and support of billion people pouring into cricket, we would be number 1 – but no, we have not managed to won the cricket world cup for more than 35 25 years.

Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin and Facebook.Arun’s Google+ Profile

its a matter of rejoice winning first ever gold medal in individual events but everyone of us has a regret in somewhere corner of heart of just winning one gold……..everyone has his/her own opinion but rather than discussing on what we have done in past we should think of factors responsible for it and how can we help ourself by removing these.

You know the minute I published this post, I was sure of getting some real negative comments. I am sure majority of people who have read this post may not like it, especially when for the first time we have won an individual Gold Medal.
Â @Gopinath you are right and I am happy that we have won a gold and I sincerely hope its a start, even though it is in baby steps.
However, what I do not understand is the amount of money distributed out by every state government probably amounting into crores…going overboard with celebrations…but the same people will think hundred times before doing it for the general betterment of sports and sportsperson.
Abhinav has a shooting range at his home and his father is going to present him a 200 cr. hotel ! Does he need any more money ?
Instead ask any other sportsperson, especially people from Meghlaya who have given us many boxers, weightlifters etc. do they even have bare sports neccessaties. A few lakh rupees will do a world of good to them.
@Rahul, Yes it has been written a 100 times before, but that does not mean I should stop voicing my opinion…like you have not stopped commenting :)
@ Amit, please pardon me if any of my statements show disrespect to Abhinav or INdia winning a Gold Medal.
I too, like billion Indians am proud that we have won the Gold. MY point is that is there a reason for such heighetened jubiliation and lavish splurge of money – that if utilized in right channel can bring us many more Golds in future !
Thanks everyone for passionate replies…

India has won its first gold medal and still people are making such kind of disrespect statement. If there comes the question of creating blunders in Olympics, We are all responsible for it; neither of us is contributing anything for Olympics sports. We were never serious for the issues related with Olympic Games. The question is not of comparing India with small nations who are winning more medals at Olympics. However, if we have to compare, just compare everything from the facilities to the environment. Abhinav case is somehow different, he has done or we can say that he created the new Olympic era for India. It is not only a matter of rejoicing, but also the most proud and happiest moment for all Indians to Celebrate.

There is nothing new you have written by jotting a few things that each & every Indian knew. Ya I agree with whatever you had to say, but I personally believe this is not the time to talk about all this. Stop getting mileage by writing such post which have been written if not more but a million Indians already.

I believe this is the time to rejoice and think it as a right beginning..Ya this is infact a beginning for 1.2 billion Indians now and I would really want to be part of that rather than doing (read accusing) of all the crap we Indians are best at.

We are rejoicing as though a child has walked his first step! Even if the child had taken the first step much after it was expected, we would still rejoice, wouldn’t we?

Besides rain, it will be pouring reward money for Abhinav. He certainly deserves it! But will money also pour in for the sports facilities for other aspiring citizens of our country? Or would they have to wait for their parents to grow rich and fund their training facilities themselves, like Abhinav?

I kind of disagree with the statement because India 35 years back was not perceived to be a sports expertise filled nation. Today, i wouldnt say we are catching up but definitely we see olympics has taken a turn since the last 10 years. We had no people participating back in 1990’s but Anju Bobby George, Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, Rosa Kutty have all been able to make a mark since the 200’s begun. And it is well noticed. Today too, i would not say we are well regarded in the field but it is definitely a rejoice. Abhinav Bhindra has made the nation proud and it is a news to feel kicked about!